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Gold stater of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides, the largest gold coin ever minted in Antiquity. The coin weighs 169.2 grams, and has a diameter of 58 millimeters.

The stater, as a Greek silver currency, first as ingots, and later as coins, circulated from the 8th century BC to 50 AD. The earliest known stamped stater (having the mark of some authority in the form of a picture or words) is an electrum turtle coin, struck at Aegina[2] that dates about 700 BC.[3] It is on display at the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. According to Robin Lane Fox, the stater as a weight unit was borrowed by the Euboean stater weighing 16.8 grams from the Phoenicianshekel, which had about the same weight as a stater (7.0 grams) and was also a fiftieth part of a mina.[4]

There also existed a "gold stater", but it was only minted in some places, and was mainly an accounting unit worth 20–28 drachms depending on place and time, the Athenian unit being worth 20 drachmas. (The reason being that one gold stater generally weighed roughly 8.5 grams, twice as much as a drachma, while the parity gold: silver, after some variance, was established as 1:10) The use of gold staters in coinage seems mostly of Macedonian origin. The best known types of Greek gold staters are the 28 drachma Kyzikenos from Cyzicus.

Celtic tribes brought the concept to Western and Central Europe after obtaining it while serving as mercenaries in north Greece. Gold and silver staters were minted in Gaul by Gallic chiefs modelled after those of Philip II of Macedonia, which were brought back after serving in his armies, or those of Alexander and his successors. Celtic staters were also minted in present-day Czech Republic and Poland.[7] The conquests of Alexander extended Greek culture east, leading to the adoption of staters in Asia. Gold staters have also been found from the ancient region of Gandhara from the time of Kanishka.[8]